83.1 A Non-Hospital Continuum of Care Model for Youth in Mental Health Crisis

Abstract

Mental health crises in youth often are triggered by psychosocial stress, such as conflicts with parents/caregivers and peers, school pressures, placement change, or trauma. In reaction, youth can quickly and often impulsively become suicidal/self-injurious or aggressive/destructive and engage in other risky behaviors. This often leads to psychiatric hospitalization or boarding in an emergency department (ED), with little to no form of mental health treatment. Such interventions, often far from home and with little contact with caregivers and other natural means of support, are disruptive, frightening, and stressful to the youth and family. The objective is to describe how a group of county stakeholders developed and implemented a continuum of nonhospital-based youth mental health crisis services.